The trip to Maldives was a family trip for a week. However.. you know us anglers will not waste an opportunity . Before we left on the trip I did some research on GT ( Giant Trevally ) popping. The tackle we packed was entirely focused on GT. We had three Spinning Rods all Daiwa Sea line Boat rods and Saltiga , Daiwa BG 90s. The line was all braid spiderwire of 60lb . The lures were large poppers. Incidentally we were also carrying a small tackle box with some Storm Deep Diving Plugs and one! Rubber Squid.
Before we left Abu Dhabi I had arranged a Safari Boat to take us out for two day fishing Trips and one night out.
The day we landed on the resort island the weather was pretty nasty with strong winds and rain. The next day morning, the boat which was scheduled to pick us up came in late due to poor visibility. The boat took us to the edge of the reefs were the GTs normally hang out . The sea was rough and we found out that it was next to impossible to stand on the deck and cast those heavy lures. After a couple of casts we gave up and decided to trawl with the spinning equip and the storm lures. The kids hooked a couple of Job fish and small tunas. The sky was getting over cast and we decided to call it a day.
Day 2 saw us leaving early morning at around 6 am. The moment we reached the channel between the islands we started trawling. 5 minutes into trawling we got a hit on one of the Storms and about 150 meters out a blue and silver beauty of a Striped Marlin took off from the water the rod doubled up and my younger one grabbed the rod, the reel started screaming on Max drag, and before we could say “Marlin”we got spooled out.
This happened to us six!! Times. All we got to see were a couple of leaps with the lure dangling from the corner of their mouth, and a few seconds on the rods with the line disappearing. We missed all the big game trawling equipment we left behind at home.
The marlins were hunting in groups. All around us we could see their tails sticking out of the water.
The night fishing was pretty good we jigged with Yozori 80 gms jigs of silver and green and caught a boat load of fish- Snappers of all shades, Emperors, Job Fish, Slender Groupers, Rock Cods etc etc.
Will be back in Maldives next Nov armed to the teeth to tackle the big boys. Any body from the forum interested tell me. Got some good connections where we can live on the boat and fish for little money.

Hi Jeen...nice pics....the second set you posed are not visible...get them on as I like to see them...getting spooled out must have been the heart break your trip I guess...especially 6 times..boy!! ...Better luck next time...
Tight lines
Belli

Yes bobby the Saltiga is defnitely leagues ahead of the BG series, in terms of strength and dependability. Saltiga is for handling big fish since you can easily put a drag of 10 kg and wrestle a fish out of the reefs.THe only reason We lost the fish is because I was carrying the Saltiga 4500 z instead of my 20,000 stella. The 4500 can hold hardly 250 yards 60lb braid and we were trolling with the lure out 150 meteres. Thus leaving us with less than 100 meteres and the fish took just a few seconds to spool us. We are talking fish as big as a door weighing upwards of 200 lbs speeding-- sorry flying at 60KM. But when I read articles that read like " 14 year old boy lands 1000lb Marlin on 17lb line" I feel like hammering myself to death with a sledge hammer. ( ofcourse i console myself with excuses like "the boy probably had 2000 yards on his dads spool")
The BG 90 and BS 90 are practcally the same except for the Gear ratio. The BG has a faster retrieve. So the spool changing is possible. ( does BS have a larger spool capacity?)
So go ahead and buy the Saltiga if you are for Daiwa or a Stella If you are a Shimano fan.

Tight Lines
Jeen

Last edited by jeen on Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Thanks for the update, looks like it's a good reel. However I would not put off the BG-90 that easly, I have a spool with 60lb line on one of them and I have caught 20KG fish (Barramundi) on that one with the spool jamed shut, so it is a reel as tough as they come.

On the other spool loaded with 20lb line I have taken a few screamers, if I had to fish Sailfish with a fixed spool reel this would certainly be my choice.

Fancy you should say, 14yr old taking a fish on 17lb line, or a lady taking a 900+lb Marlin on 9lb line, so there bang that head against the wall again but then they would have had an overhead with some more line and a very good boatman.

I am certainly NOT a Shimano Fan, and went in for the Van Stall against the Stella, which I found deffective...
Besides I am still looking for spares for my 50W Tiagras, now all my Big Game tackle is Penn International II, Fin-Nor and Everol.

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